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Every building has some seismic risk; the only question is how much. A listing that says "no seismic risk" almost always means the building has never been assessed. You can't tell from the outside, so start with four checks: the year the building was built, the official list of buildings with seismic risk, part III of the land book, and the building's technical book. Then, if anything is unclear, have a certified structural expert look at the whole building.
In short
There's no such thing as a building without seismic risk. "Fara risc seismic" in a listing usually means "never assessed".
Not on the list does not mean safe. It means the building hasn't been assessed (AICPS, the structural engineers' association).
The year matters most. Buildings designed before the 1977 earthquake were built to codes the engineers themselves call "low". Codes became stricter after 1978, and again from 1992.
Four classes, RsI to RsIV. RsI is the most vulnerable, RsIV behaves like a new building.
U1, U2 and U3 are something else: old 1990s deadlines for strengthening, long expired. A building still listed under a U category should be avoided.
The class is now written in the land book, in part III, for the whole building (Law 212/2022, art. 3 and 3^1).
Flats in RsI buildings can't be rented until the building has been strengthened (art. 5 alin. (3)).
The official Bucharest list has 2,798 buildings. About 78% were built before 1945; only 30 were built between 1978 and 1989.
What does "no seismic risk" in a listing mean?
Usually, that nobody has checked. Every building has some seismic risk. Classes measure how much, and the lowest class (RsIV) still means a risk, just one comparable to a new building.
Every assessed building falls into one of four classes, from RsI (most vulnerable) to RsIV (behaves like a new building). There's no "no risk" class (AICPS).
A building that isn't on any list hasn't been found safe. It simply hasn't been assessed (AICPS).
When an agent or a seller says "fara risc seismic", it most likely means the building isn't on the list, not that an expert has cleared it.
What to ask instead: "Has the building had a technical expertise? When, by whom, and which class did it get?" If there's an expertise, ask for a copy. If there isn't, treat the risk as unknown.
How do you check if your building has seismic risk?
Five checks, in this order. The first four take minutes; the fifth is the only one that gives a real answer.
Find the year it was built. It's in the sale contract, the land book or the building's technical book, and maps like Harta Blocuri show it for most cities. It tells you which seismic code the building was designed to (see below).
Check the official list.
In Bucharest: the list kept by AMCCRS, the municipal agency for strengthening buildings at seismic risk. You can search it by address.
In other cities: the city hall publishes or holds the list of assessed buildings. Ask the urbanism department if you can't find it online.
Check part III of the land book (cartea funciara). Since 2025–2026, a building's seismic risk class is noted there, for the whole building, once an assessment has been sent to the land registry (Law 212/2022, art. 3 alin. (1) lit. c) and art. 3^1).
Ask the owners' association for the technical book (cartea tehnica), and ask whether the building has ever been assessed, strengthened or altered.
If the building is old, unassessed, or the answers worry you, get a technical expertise. It's done by a certified technical expert, for the whole building, never for one flat (see "What does a technical expertise involve?").
To see your locality's seismic hazard, the Ministry of Development publishes an interactive map. Bucharest's design ground acceleration is 0.30 g, among the highest in the country.
What do the seismic risk classes RsI to RsIV mean?
RsI is the most vulnerable, RsIV the least. These are today's classes, and a building gets one only after a technical expertise.
The current classes come from P100-3/2019, the code for assessing existing buildings:
RsI: buildings with a high risk of collapse in the design earthquake.
RsII: buildings likely to suffer major structural damage in the design earthquake, where collapse is unlikely.
RsIII: buildings likely to suffer structural damage that doesn't significantly affect their safety; damage to non-structural elements can be important.
RsIV: buildings whose expected behaviour is similar to new buildings designed to current codes.
"Bulina rosie" (the red dot) is the popular name for the warning sign on buildings in class RsI. The law requires the signs at every entrance of an RsI residential building (Law 212/2022, art. 9 lit. c)).
What do U1, U2 and U3 mean, and why should you avoid them?
U1, U2 and U3 are not risk classes. They're old urgency categories, and every one of them meant the building needed strengthening. A building still listed under U1–U3 should be avoided.
How they differ from RsI–RsIV:
When: the U categories were set in the 1990s, under a code that's no longer in force. The Rs classes come from today's code (P100-3/2019).
What they measure: a U category was a deadline: strengthen within 2 years (U1), 5 years (U2) or 10 years (U3). An Rs class measures how vulnerable the building is (AICPS).
What they tell you today:
Every U building was found, in the 1990s, to need strengthening.
The deadlines ran out decades ago.
If the building is still listed only under a U category, it has been neither strengthened nor re-assessed.
U3 isn't safer than U1. The number was a timeline, not a level of risk (AICPS).
A U category can't be converted into an Rs class. It takes a new expertise, and today's assessment may well come out worse than the 1990s one (AICPS).
Our advice: avoid buying in a building that's still listed under U1, U2 or U3, unless a new expertise or a strengthening project is already under way. For owners already living in one, the law allows a new expertise to the current code, paid from the local budget (see "What does a technical expertise involve?").
Why does the year your building was built matter so much?
Because it tells you which seismic code it was designed to, and Romania's codes changed sharply after the 1977 earthquake.
How engineers group Romania's seismic codes (Prof. Radu Văcăreanu, UTCB):
Before 1963: no seismic design code was compulsory nationwide.
1963–1977 (P13-63, P13-70): "low" codes, which led to brittle behaviour.
1978–1991 (P100-78, P100-81): "moderate" codes with limited ductility, written after the 1977 earthquake.
1992 onward (P100-92, P100-1/2006, P100-1/2013): "high" codes, designed for ductile behaviour.
The law uses the same line. Law 212/2022 targets buildings designed before the 1978 code (P100-78) in localities with a design ground acceleration of at least 0.20 g (art. 3 alin. (3) lit. a)).
Why it matters: the 1977 Vrancea earthquake (magnitude 7.4) killed 1,578 people, 1,424 of them in Bucharest, where 32 buildings collapsed. Vrancea produces large, deep earthquakes several times a century; there were major ones in 1940, 1977, 1986 and 1990.
The year is a strong signal, not a verdict. Quality varied within every period, maintenance and alterations change things, and the AICPS notes that defects were already common in some buildings before 1989, especially after 1985.
What does the official Bucharest list actually show?
Mostly old, pre-war buildings, and a large number that were assessed in the 1990s and never reclassified.
Our analysis of the AMCCRS list, as updated on 6 October 2026:
2,798 buildings in total.
By current class: about 415 in RsI (about 6,600 flats), 491 in RsII (about 17,100 flats), 164 in RsIII and 11 in RsIV; 118 have been strengthened.
About 1,450 still carry only an old urgency category (U1–U3) and have no current class. That's more than half the list: buildings found to need strengthening 30 years ago, never re-assessed. About 145 have neither.
By year built: 2,192 before 1945, 255 between 1945 and 1962, 287 between 1963 and 1977, 30 between 1978 and 1989, and 4 after 1990.
Of the RsI buildings, about 382 were built before 1945. None were built between 1978 and 1989.
More than half of the RsI classifications come from expertises carried out before 2000.
What this does and doesn't tell you:
It confirms the age logic. The list is dominated by pre-war buildings, and post-1978 blocs barely appear.
It doesn't mean communist-era blocs are safe. Most of them have simply never been assessed, and "not on the list" means exactly that.
Looking at a flat and not sure what the building's class, or lack of one, means for you? Book a free 45-minute Office Hours session, send us the address and the year it was built, and we'll go through what the list, the land book and the building's age tell you, and what to ask before you commit.
What does a risk class mean legally?
An RsI class comes with real restrictions on renting, use and timelines. RsI and RsII both have to be recorded in the land registry.
The land book: owners must send the expertise to the city hall, and its conclusions and class to the land registry (ANCPI), within 30 days. The class is then noted in part III of the land book for the whole building, so every co-owner and any buyer can see it (Law 212/2022, art. 3 alin. (1) lit. c) and art. 3^1).
Renting: flats in an RsI building can't be rented or lent from the date of the classification until the strengthening works are completed (art. 5 alin. (3)).
Crowds: activities that gather people (shops, restaurants, event spaces and the like) are banned in RsI buildings until they're strengthened (art. 5 alin. (2)).
Deadlines for RsI owners: commission and check the strengthening design within two years of being notified, then start the works within two years of the design (art. 5 alin. (1)).
Warning signs at every entrance of an RsI residential building, within 60 days of the expertise (art. 9 lit. c)).
Registration: RsI and RsII buildings must be registered in the cadastre and land book within one year of classification (art. 5^1).
State-funded strengthening: if a flat in a building strengthened through the national programme is sold within five years of completion, the public money has to be repaid. A sale that ignores this is void (art. 18 alin. (6) and (8)).
Permits: strengthening works on RsI buildings that pose a public danger are authorised as an emergency, without fees (Law 169/2026, art. 283 alin. (3)).
Does a bloc "expire" after 50 years?
No. Fifty years is a design assumption, not an expiry date. What matters is how the building was designed, maintained and altered.
Where the number comes from: the European standard for structural design, EN 1990, gives an indicative design working life of 50 years for ordinary buildings. It means the period the structure is designed to serve with normal maintenance, without major repair. It's not the moment the building stops being safe.
What really ages concrete is water. Reinforcement corrodes where moisture gets in, through leaking roofs, failed balcony waterproofing, broken drainage and damp basements. A dry, well-maintained structure ages far more slowly than an exposed one.
But survival isn't proof either. Earthquakes weaken structures rather than strengthen them, and "it came through 1977" says little about the next one (AICPS).
The honest answer: age alone doesn't condemn a bloc, and age alone doesn't clear it. An expertise does.
What should you ask about alterations?
Some of the most common risks in blocs were added later, by people changing their flats or the ground floor. Ask about them before you buy.
Walls removed or cut inside flats, especially openings made in concrete panel walls to join rooms or open a kitchen.
Ground-floor shops and offices that enlarged windows, removed walls or opened up the space. An open, weak ground floor under a stiff building above is a known weakness.
Balconies merged into rooms, where the wall under the window was cut.
Extra weight on the structure: added floors, heavy terraces, roof additions.
Questions to ask the seller and the association:
Has anything been changed in this flat, or in the building, that touched walls, slabs or balconies?
Were the works approved, and is there an expertise behind them?
Is it recorded in the technical book?
These are questions, not a diagnosis. Only a structural expert can say whether an alteration matters.
What does a technical expertise involve?
It covers the whole building, it's done by a certified technical expert, and the result is a risk class plus the strengthening measures.
Who can do it: only engineers certified by the Ministry of Development as technical experts for mechanical resistance and stability. That takes at least 12 years of experience and exams. Check the expert on the ministry's list before you hire them (AICPS).
Always the whole building: an assessment of one flat can't give a class, and an opinion based on one flat can be misleading (AICPS).
What it involves: inspections in each flat, measurements, opening up finishes to see hidden elements, geotechnical investigation, digging to examine the foundations, and tests on the materials.
What it concludes: the class (RsI–RsIV) and, where needed, the strengthening solutions (Law 169/2026, art. 584, definition of technical expertise).
Who pays: normally the owners, through the association. One important exception: if the building was assessed under a code that's no longer in force, which covers every U1–U3 building, the owners can ask for a new expertise to the current code, paid from the local budget (Law 212/2022, art. 3 alin. (2)). Ask the city hall; in Bucharest, AMCCRS.
What it costs otherwise depends on the building's size, age and structure. Ask two or three certified experts for a quote.
What does the mandatory home insurance cover for earthquakes?
The mandatory policy (PAD) covers earthquakes, but only up to a fixed amount, usually far below the value of a flat.
What it covers: earthquakes, landslides and natural floods (Law 260/2008).
How much: up to €20,000 for concrete, brick or metal buildings (type A), and up to €10,000 for wood or adobe (type B), for a premium of about €20 or €10 a year.
What it doesn't do: match the real value of your home. To cover more, you need an optional policy. Check that it includes earthquake.
Should you buy a flat in a building with seismic risk?
Start from the facts, then look at the specific building. The class is one factor; it isn't the whole answer.
RsI: you can't rent the flat out, strengthening deadlines apply, and the class is visible in the land book. If the building is in a strengthening programme, ask where it stands, and remember the five-year repayment rule if public money is involved.
RsII: fewer legal restrictions, but the expertise says major structural damage is likely in a strong earthquake. Read the full expertise, not just the class.
An old U1, U2 or U3 category: avoid. In the 1990s the building was found to need strengthening; the deadline passed long ago, and it has been neither strengthened nor re-assessed. Consider it only if a new expertise or a strengthening project is already under way.
No class and no category at all: the risk is unknown. Ask whether the building has ever been assessed, and treat the answer "fara risc seismic" as "never assessed".
Beyond the class: when the expertise was done, what's been altered, how the building has been maintained, the ground it stands on, and whether a strengthening project already exists all change the picture.
This is where a professional earns their fee. Two buildings with the same class can be very different purchases.
Check the building before you sign
In a free, 45-minute Office Hours call, an architect goes through the building with you: what its year, the list, the land book and the technical book say, which alterations to ask about, whether you need an expertise, and how the risk affects what you're planning to do with the flat.
Bring: the address and the year it was built, a land book extract if you have one, the listing, and any expertise or association documents you've been given.
No pitch, no obligation. Pick a time below; it shows in your local time.
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